Te(a)ch for Good

Master Lesson Series

I have been a teacher for a long time. In all those years of teaching technology/software application courses, seminars, and workshops, the most regularly asked question is, “How?” I would like to think I adequately explain the “Why?” during my lesson introductions. But, no matter what I am teaching it seems that the project on the other end of the lesson is what causes the most confusion for students. I firmly believe that it isn’t the software or the hardware that causes the most difficulty, or even my teaching that causes problems for students (because why would I think that?) I think that the problem lies within a disconnect between the students learning and the doing. I have found that some people are very good at learning and some are very good at doing but the successful students are those that are very good at putting learning and doing together. The purpose of this Master Lesson Series will be to link learning and doing. I intend on helping you build something awesome! Not just once, but over and over again, at your own pace.

Luckily for you I have many years of using textbooks, being a student, and teaching under my belt.This experience has helped me to understand that the best way to create learners that “do” is to start the ball rolling for them and show the student how to begin. By simply going through the motions of creating a project, I can push my students out of the nest, so to speak. I build the project step-by-step until sooner or later the students begin to working on their own and at their own pace.

Students that appear to grasp the lesson quickly have a skill that the slower students do not have.

Frankly, their rapid successes are due to their ability to recall prior learning. Depending on how much information that was picked up (or reactivated) in the instructional part of the lesson or, more importantly, how well the instruction has linked itself to prior learning will determine the amount of time it takes students to begin working on their own. Rapid success students are those that have the ability to link past learning (perhaps in a similar setting, software, or subject matter) to the task at hand. These students are not necessarily smarter than you, they are very talented at taking chunks of learning from the past and applying it to whatever they happen to be doing right now. Think of this in terms of using MS Office. Once you are familiar with any one of the programs in the MS Office suite, you are already familiar with the basics in all the other programs in the MS suite. This is one of Microsoft’s greatest successes – the knowledge that familiarity across all the software in the MS Office Suite will keep bringing people back because of its ease of use.

Getting the Ball Rolling

In this Master Lesson Series, I will use video to go step-by-step into the creation of a project such as a newsletter in Publisher, a brochure in Word, an Excel Spreadsheet, or a PowerPoint presentation. Each module, or chunk, within a project will cover only one topic or concept within that project. For example, the use of kerning is a staple skill for creating a newsletter in MS Publisher. This skill can be utilized in other software programs such as MS Word. Once the module on kerning is available it can then be integrated into other lesson on creating a brochure, but after you have completed a Remember, at the bottom of each lesson module, you can ask questions publicly or you can always email me at dr.daniel.robinson71@gmail.com.

module in a previous lesson you can either review the module or skip it.

Secondly, what I will do is to demonstrate the modules in comparable software (when applicable) so that you can utilize the software you have on hand. For example, I will take you step-by step through how to build a newsletter in MS Publisher, MS Word, and Google Docs. If you prefer different software for the project, request it in the comments below. I will attempt to accommodate your needs as much as possible.

Finally, as the lesson modules grow in number, I will list them in the blog index and on my website. I plan to group the modules by topic, by software, and by project. As I have said repeatedly, the modules are free to use at your own pace.

Take Away

The Master Lesson Series (MLS) will guide readers through stages of building different projects. Each lesson will consist of one chunk or piece of the lesson to master. Those individual chunks can then be utilized together to create complete projects. These MLS will constantly be adding new lessons that can be learned, reviewed, or skipped based on personal need.

Editor's Top 10 Expert Rules for Starting a Newsletter

The early days of developing an organizational newsletter is typically a stressful and confusing time. Very little direction on how to develop and manage a newsletter, especially a print newsletter, is available online. I have been teaching print and digital newsletter creation for over 20 years now and I guarantee that the process is much simpler than you think. Let's start here by looking at the Top 10 Rules for Starting a Newsletter. Each of these Top 10 Rules are then discussed in greater detail in their own blog post. Read them in the order that you need them!

1. Know How Much You Can Spend

Copy Machines today are very economical and the output is darn near professional. If your organization has a copy machine then I would strongly suggest utilizing it. You can probably figure out how much each copy of your newsletter will cost you. Black & White will be cheaper but color will look so much better and your readers will react more positively towards a color edition than a B&W edition. If you check around you may find copy services that will also print and fold the newsletter. One word of caution: always check the quality of the print rather than the cost. A cheaper printing that looks terrible and is unreadable is not cheaper, it is a waste of time and materials.

2. Who is reading the newsletter?

Are you writing for a wide audience or subgroups within your organization? Are you writing for new/potential readers? Are you writing for a wide audience while including subgroups and new readers? Knowing the specific audiences will allow you to plan for content. The Grass is Greener where you water it. Example: The primary focus of our parish newsletter is to reach out to our non-regular parishioners with the intention of letting them know we haven’t forgotten them.

3. What is the publishing schedule?

Monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, or yearly? The number of times you publish per year will determine the amount of material you need and if you will have enough time to acquire/write materials between publications. The budget will also determine how many publications per year will occur.

4. The mission statement determines the materials

Materials for you newsletter are typically seasonally appropriate. Articles need to be planned out to coincide with holidays like Christmas and Easter or need to announce special dates or activities. . Readership may decrease during summer months. The calendar plays a large role in planning themes and materials for each edition. Some components of the newsletter will be the same in every edition, for example every edition should include: a greetings letter from the editor, minister, and/.or president/CEO; the publication information and deadline dates; seasonally recurring updates such as the summer picnic or the organizational Christmas party; and, recurring articles from feature writers or commentators. Unless your newsletter is intended to be polarizing and cause disparity of emotion, never include materials that would be considered contentious without prior approval of administration. They will be on the receiving end of complaints so make sure they are aware of the potential drama.

5. Be Accommodating

People within your organization are busy. They will have deadlines and activities that they will need to deal with and newsletter deadlines may be way down on their “to do” list. Prepare and plan for this eventuality. Even if your publishing dates are the same year after year, there will always be people asking for extensions. I have found that having a deadline for submissions three weeks ahead of my publish date (for a quarterly publishing schedule) and weekly email reminders of the submission dates will bring in 80-90% of the necessary materials for publication. No matter what there will still be the same people every edition that will be late or completely oblivious of their obligations. Be kind and adaptable.

6. Ask and ye shall receive

It has been my experience that there are plenty of writers, photographers, poets, mail sorters, and computer experts that would be glad to lend a hand. They will never volunteer unless they are asked to help. A blanket announcement for help is always assumed to be “for someone else.” People want to be asked in person. Skip the email or the handwritten letter. People are less likely to say no when you are standing in front of them asking them for help. Many hands make light work.

7. Beware of text laden pages

No matter whether your newsletter is in color or B&W you will need pictures, images, enhancements, and text boxes. Nothing will kill a newsletter faster than a big case of boring. Text is the backbone of the newsletter but pages of black text on white paper will cause readers to skim or skip. Attention spans in the 21^st century are about 5-7 seconds (or less.) Adding pictures or clip art to break up text will draw the readers eye through the text as well as help tell the story. Quotes from the article in text boxes will help readers decide if they are interested in reading the article right then or save it for later. I’ve been told by many of my readers that before they read a single word of my newsletters they skim every page and look at the pictures. I suspect this practice is simply to find pictures of themselves or their family members! (Note: Nothing will increase readership like a parent/grandparent looking for their kids’ pictures.)

8. Connect readers to digital resources

Use URL’s, YouTube channels, and social media to increase readership and further current readers participation with your newsletter. Articles should include links to further reading or videos of events to reinforce what readers are reading. An article about the summer picnic is interesting but can be much more “real” when combined with a link to the organizations YouTube channel to see and hear the excitement of the parish picnic first hand. A picture (or video) is worth a thousand words! Linking an exact copy of an article to an online digital copy enables readers to share the article or pictures with family or friends that do not receive a print copy.

9. Be firm in your resolve.

Just like being adamant regarding the topics and subject nature must be reinforced, so too must length of articles be stubbornly regulated. Space in a newsletter is at a premium and with the addition of pictures, images, enhancements, and text boxes article size must be strictly enforced. A good policy to have in effect is that the editor of the newsletter has final say on length and content of all submitted articles. Not only will submissions be edited for grammar, spelling, and content, but articles can (and will) be edited for length. As a rule of thumb I tell all would-be writers that 500 words is the maximum length. All writers will think that they have produced “best-seller” articles and that cutting their prose is a travesty. Having a policy about content and length will save you and your writers much grief. Also, writers that are unhappy are unlikely to write again.

10 Showcase local

Organizational news should be given precedence over national or non-organizational news. The focus of relevant local news must be given primary real estate in the newsletter over news that can be found on other resources. To put it bluntly, you are focusing on your own business and not your neighbors. A section of links to where outside topics can be found is one way to “show and tell” but not elaborate. The mission statement should clearly define the topics and style of information offered in your newsletter. (For example: a church newsletter could focus on religious topics, member news, mission events, or editorial style articles explaining church doctrine or dogma, or a combination of all these.)

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